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- Almqvist, Anna-Lena, 1963-
(författare)
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The care of children : A cross-national comparison of parents’ expectations and experiences
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- As a point of departure, this thesis is motivated by the big changes which have taken place in most Western European countries since the 1970s, with an increase in female labour market participation and, to some extent, men’s increased share of the domestic work. There is also a debate as to whether France, having a fairly extensive family support,should be categorised as closer to the Scandinavian countries or together with countries with more restrictive family policy such as Italy and Germany, and thus belonging to the conservative regime cluster as defined by Gösta Esping-Andersen. The major topic of this thesis concerns what expectations parents have on childcare and how they experience the combination of care of children and participation in paid work. Two studies, based on quantitative macro-data, analyse and compare differences in primarily women’s employment in relation to family policy measures. The studies concern in addition to France and Sweden, also Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom. The results indicate that the extensive family support system brings France closer to the Scandinavian countries. However, results based on 80 interviews made with 40 French and 40 Swedish families in the three following studies indicate that this may not be the case concerning factors like attitudes and values about the care of children and the reconciliation of work and family. Results indicate that values expressed in the French families point to a strong connection with values significant for countries in the conservative regime cluster. Major findings are that in the reconciliation of work and family, Swedes experience role stress more than French people, and in particular Swedish fathers. In France, on the other hand, mothers strongly express a feeling of dissatisfaction with their partner’s lack of participation in the household work. Regarding the attitudes to the paid parental leave (allocation parentale d’éducation- APE), French families’ arguments reflect that the policy does not promote fathers’ use of paid parental leave, and French mothers more than Swedish mothers refer to the weaker labour market situation as a reason for their use of the leave. Concerning expectations on childcare, French families more than Swedish families stress the importance of ‘upbringing,’ ‘learning’ and ‘socialisation,’ whereas Swedish families emphasise ‘pedagogy’ and that the staff recognises the individual child.
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- Grönlund, Anne, 1962-
(författare)
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Flexibilitetens gränser : Förändring och friktion i arbetsliv och familj
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- THE TERM FLEXIBILITY has come to be a symbol for a number of grand hopes. An increased flexibility is seen as a key issue for modern organisations and is assumed to pave the way for a more gender equal and family friendly working life. The aim of the thesis has been to confront a number of assumptions about the “flexibilization” of working life with quantitative data from the Swedish labour market. An important goal has been to discuss the effects of flexibility on gender segregation in work and family life. The study focuses on three branches with different gender composition of the work force: manufacturing, health care and finance. The main data consists of a questionnaire that was sent to a representative sample of employees in the three branches (n=1.836) and another that was sent to their workplaces (n=625). Addional data comes from interviews with representatives of labour unions and employer organisations, and reviews of collective agreements and of- ficial statistics. The results provide a picture of flexibility in working life that differs from the one depicted in the ongoing debate, both regarding the strategies of organisations and the significance of flexibility to employees. The debate has focused on expanding employers’ room to manoeuvre, especially the possibilities to hire and fire personnel according to shifts in demand. The thesis shows, however, that efforts to create flexibility within the existing work force, through for instance overtime and work rotation, are equally important as the numerical flexibility obtained through termination of personnel, temporary jobs and sub-contracting. The results also challenge the idea that labour market regulation constitutes a decisive obstacle for flexibility. Workplaces that regard regulation as a problem do not adapt staffing to demand any less than others do and in all three branches competence issues pose a greater problem. The analyses point to a somewhat ambiguous relationship between gender and flexibility. Women have less employeroriented flexible work hours than men, which could be a result of their greater responsibility for home and children, but despite this responsibility they have less of a possibility to set their own working hours. This is explained by the fact that influence over work hours is an organisational perk associated with a high position and an adaptation to employer needs, rather than a right for the employee. Demands on time from the family in the form of children or a greater responsibility for housework do not affect the possibilities for flexible work schedules. The thesis also gives cause to question the idea that flexible work hours make it easier to combine paid work and family. Flexibility does not seem to lessen the conflict between these two spheres, nor does it lead to a more egalitarian division of housework. Functional flexibility in the form of work rotation and other forms of varying work tasks leads to job enrichment, but also to an intensification of work This kind of flexibility is not more common among men than women and there is no gender difference regarding its effects on work.
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- Johansson, Mairon, 1956-
(författare)
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I dialogens namn : idén om en överenskommelse mellan regeringen och ideella organisationer
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Many European countries have a model of formal agreements between the state and voluntary organisations involved in the core field of welfare, regarding their relative roles and cooperation. This dissertation analyzes the establishment of a Swedish agreement and how the cooperation leads up to the agreement. The cooperation process, known as the dialogue process, took place during more than a year, with the government inviting around eighty voluntary organisations. The theoretical framework of the dissertation is mainly what is know as institutional theory and a line of thought describing how ideas are not transferred and spread but translated and spread. The theoretical focus is on how original ideas are interpreted and why they gain a foothold in new contexts. With the help of empirical material in the form of documents, observations and interviews the dissertation shows how the idea of an agreement was spread from England to Sweden and how the government and the voluntary organisations acted during this process. One of the study’s conclusions is that the voluntary organisations took the initiative to create an agreement about “the role of game” but that the government transformed the voluntary organisations’ idea of an agreement to justify their own political goals. The Swedish agreement can therefore be seen as a step in clarifying Swedish social policy as regards responsibility for welfare. Voluntary organisations that have signed the agreement commit to contribute to securing welfare production. The dissertation shows that this role is appreciated by some of the voluntary organisations, while others question it.
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- Nermo, Magnus
(författare)
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Structured by gender : patterns of sex segregation in the Swedish labour market : historical and cross-national comparisons
- 1999
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The main purpose of this thesis is to study changes in the level of sex segregation in the Swedish labour market during the 20th century.The thesis includes four empirical chapters. Chapter 2 studies trends in sex segregation by industry and market position in the Swedish labour market between 1890 and 1990. The analyses demonstrate that the Swedish labour market has in overall terms become relatively less sex segregated, both by industry and by market position, since the turn of the century. Chapter 3 focuses on changes in the level of sex segregation in the Swedish labour market since the late 1960s. However, unlike the previous chapter, the data used here is on a more detailed occupational level.Chapter 4 focuses, unlike the above chapters, on the supply side of female labour force participation and allocation. The aim is to examine why young women end up in male-dominated or sex-integrated occupations rather than female-dominated ones with regard to their upbringing, their educational attainment, and family responsibility.Chapter 5 is a comparative analysis of cross-national variation in sex segregation. The results indicate that, given differences in sex composition and occupational structure, the countries studied here produce fairly similar segregation profiles that are markedly structured by gender. The thesis is concluded by a discussion of how to interpret the principal findings in terms of stability or change over time, as well as in terms of similarity and variability between countries
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